PD Solidarity Plans

Peoples Democracy responded immediately to the military takeover in Poland. We produced thousands of leaflets condemning the repression and explaining why Irish workers should defend Solidarnosc. In Limerick the local PD branch collected 650 signatures in a few hours for a petition to General Jaruzelski demanding the ending of martial law and the release of all imprisoned trade unionists and political prisoners.

A similar petition was launched in Belfast where PD got the support of Joe Cooper, President of the Belfast Trades Council. PD members in Dublin launched the National Appeal and initially got the support of Bernadette McAliskey, Alex White, President of Trinity College Students Union, Joe Duffy, Education officer of the Union of Students in Ireland. Michael Farrell of PD spoke at the first meeting of the newly formed Polish Solidarity Gommittee. PD members also took part in a picket at the Soviet Embassy and a demonstration in support of Polish workers at which Michael Farrell was a speaker.

The National Appeal is directed at the trade union, socialist and anti— imperialist movements. PD plans a national tour of leading speakers with meetings in Belfast, Derry, Limerick and Cork. A major meeting in Dublin is also being planned.

A PD pamphlet explaining the rise of Solidarnosc, why the Stalinist regime in Poland has imposed martial law and the prospects for Polish socialism is being produced. The pamphlet explains why the fake socialists of the CPI, SFWP and individuals like Jim’ Kemmy TD and Noel Browne TD refuse to support the Polish workers. PD will also be producing posters and badges in solidarity with Solidarnosc. Our members and supporters will be making a big push inside the labour and trade union movement to get financial aid and fact finding delegations to the Polish workers to help them continue the resistance.

Help us to help the Polish workers. Our resources are very limited. To do better we need your money. Will you help? Any donation no matter how small will enable us to do a better job in helping our Polish brothers and sisters.

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POLISH APPEAL, C/O Connolly Bookshop, Avoca Park, Andersonstown, sey insurrection. joined it. of: Solidarity.

Polish Stalinism during the 1970 uprising workers’ interests. akin to the Ulster Workers Council and that it was planning an armed The comparison between Solidarity and the UWC is ludicrous.

1) Solidarity is a mass movement based on the vast majority of Polish workers even a majority of Polish Communist Party (PUWP) members 2) According to the Gdansk agreement Solidarity was recognised by the Polish courts as a legitimate trade union; indeed funds from the ‘official’ trade union movement were handed over to heip consolidate local branches 3) The programme of Solidarity specifically pledged itself to defence of Poland’s socialist foundations; time and again Solidarity leaders including Lech Walesa declared their opposition to a return to Western capitalism.

How these features of Solidarity liken it to the UWC is a mystery. The UWC contained in its leadership many prominent right-wing politicians and was not a specifically working class movement; it had no rank and file organisation; it was pledged to the re-estab; lishment of the Stormont regime which * for years refused to recognise the ICTU tion. as a legitimate representative of was imminent. But it is a travesty to say that this was a conscious aim of ‘Solidarity. If anything, Solidarity hesitated too long before preparing for the inevitable showdown.

The truth is that the Polish government provoked the confrontation by breaking every article of the Gdansk agreement. And there is plenty of evidence that this was a policy of deliberate provocation. As far back as November 1980 Solidarity published documents from the State Prosecutor’s office outlining procedures for repressing opposition to the regime. That was over a year before the dramatic revelation that police spies had overheard the word ‘insurrection’ mentioned from the lips of Walesa.

In any case, the first premeditated step towards military rule was not a response to Walesa’s private remarks but the installation of Gen. Jaruzelski as Polish head of state.

The CPI’s apologia for the Polish military regime will make an interesting if odious footnote in the history of the struggle for socialism in Ireland, Hopefully the building of a united solidarity movement in defence of Polish workers will make a more substantial and worthwhile contribuPAGE 6 SOCIALIST REPUBLIC the conduct of the meeting”. Yet